Sunday, March 7, 2010

Because this is a day ending in 'y', it means that a news organization somewhere in this fine land is spreading drug warrior lies in an effort to boost the burgeoning but ineffective Sudafed crackdown.

The culprit this time is the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, which is bragging in an editorial that it had cheered on the passage of a new Mississippi law that requires a prescription for over-the-counter allergy drugs - in open defiance of federal law.

I'd thought the Clarion-Ledger had turned over a new leaf following its woes of decades past, but I guess not.

The editorial stands out for its smugness. It seems to attempt to depict anyone who dares to oppose the new law as some sort of dope fiend. This line is especially sanctimonious: "The passage of the legislation brought howls of protests from users of those now over-the-counter remedies that their 'rights' were being trampled."

That the Clarion-Ledger puts "rights" in quotes in this piece shows how out of step the paper is. If I have allergies, I have every right to get medicine over-the-counter, because that's what federal law says - Mississippi laws be damned.

The Clarion-Ledger smacks of an absolute contempt of the very concept of rights.

Did Pathway Family Center use all its grant money to buy the Clarion-Ledger when nobody was looking? It already seems like PFC owns the Cincinnati Enquirer, considering that paper's articles supporting this discredited cult that yelled out "druggie druggie druggie!" every time someone disagreed with it.

The Clarion-Ledger editorial is erroneous, to put it politely. It says drug makers fought against the new law - even though big drug companies actually supported it, because it would let them charge more for their product.

The piece also lies about the effects of a similar law in Oregon. It says meth labs declined in Oregon by 96% after the law passed.

That is an out-and-out lie. I don't know where they got this statistic from, but it's my duty to call them out on it. Countering lies like this is literally my job. I guess they believe Mao Zedong's observation that if you want people to believe a lie, don't just tell a little fib - tell a real whopper!

The War on Drugs has been a war on the people. Drug abuse and crime have soared as the drug war has stepped up, while the prison state has expanded. Unfortunately, it shows no sign of ending - especially as right-wing editorials cheer it.

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